Free Games of Fire by Airicka Phoenix Page A

waiting for her to continue.
    Her mother’s eyes widened. “A date? With whom?”
    The question threw her. She should have expected it, but at the same time, she hadn’t expected it at all. Her mother would never let her go out with a boy that wasn’t picking her up at the door, or a boy her mother had never met or even heard of. Brian had never been a topic of conversation in the Valdez household, not because Sophie hadn’t wanted to, but because the hassle just wasn’t worth it when she’d been so sure nothing would ever happen in that department. But her mother would ask too many questions, possibly even call to talk to him like Sophie was five and not seventeen. The last thing she wanted was Brian to realize how lame she was.
    “Uh …” Out of sheer desperation, her gaze flittered to Spencer. “With Spencer?”
    He stiffened. His eyes widened. The cookie he’d been in the process of eating hung half in and half out of his mouth. It would have been comical, except in two seconds flat, his expression hardened. He broke the cookie and chewed the half still in his mouth, all the while staring Sophie down like he wanted to vaporize her with his eyes.
    Jackie turned to her son. “You didn’t tell me you were taking Sophie to the party this weekend.”
    It was a toss up who was more surprised by this, Sophie or her mother. They both stared at the pair.
    “Are you going to the same party?” Her mother caught herself much quicker. “Where is it? Will there be someone there to supervise? Will there be drinking?”
    It’s not a Church gathering! Sophie wanted to snap, but she was more focused on silently pleading with Spencer. She stared into his eyes, trying not to flinch at the fire leaping out at her.
    It was risky taking such a huge gamble. The guy wasn’t her biggest fan and possibly already had a date, probably with Maggie Chow, but she wasn’t asking him to go with her, just to cover for her so she could go, too. He didn’t even have to hang out with her or talk to her.
    He got to his feet, seeming very tall in the suddenly small room. He moved slowly until he was nearly on her toes. His words blew over her like glacial winds when he spoke, spitting each word out as if they were bitter. “Play your games with someone else.”
    Humiliation vaulted up her body in a flood of boiling water. It consumed her until she was certain she would burn from the inside out. Angry tears welled up in her eyes. She bit a hole into the inside of her cheek to keep them from falling. If he noticed, it was impossible to tell when he was storming past her as if being there made him want to kill someone. Her entire body jolted with the slamming of the door.
    Jackie was on her feet in a flash. “What on earth?” She turned towards Sophie’s mother. “I’m so sorry, Mary!”
    Her mother shook her head. “ No! No, no, we can do dinner another time.”
    The two women exchanged hugs. Jackie grabbed her purse and jacket off the armrest of the sofa and hurried towards the door. Sophie didn’t budge when a hand rested lightly on her shoulder and squeezed.
    “I’ll talk to him,” Jackie said softly. “If you guys had plans I’ll make sure he keeps them.”
    When Sophie didn’t respond, Jackie left, closing the door quietly behind her.
    “Sophia—”
    Sophie didn’t wait to hear what her mother had to say. Self-loathing fueled her legs. She bolted for the stairs and barricaded herself inside her room. The bags in her hands sailed into the closet, knocking over hangers and falling to the closet floor in a spilled heap of material. She left them there as she locked herself in the bathroom for the hottest shower in human history.
    It served her right, she concluded twenty minutes later as she dried off and stepped into sweats and an oversized t-shirt. Had she really expected him to just go along with her stupid plan? What on earth had possessed her to even turn to him for help? Of course he would turn her down. She was the